A Dragon's Heart
by Yuriko Hanami
Summary: AU, Natsu x Lucy, kinda. What you have to do often isn't what you want to do. Caught between loyalty to her tribe and loyalty to her own beliefs, what will a young woman do, when she meets the cause of her turmoil? My very first english story ever.
1. Chapter 1

Soooo ... here is the first thing ever published by me.

English isn't my first language and I don't have a beta, yet (someone interested?) but I tried my best to avoid mistakes.

Read, enjoy, review, don't be too harsh with criticism.

**Disclaimer:**

You all know how it is.

The characters aren't mine.

The story is inspired by everything I ever read or watched about dragons and the likes, so possibly occurring similarities aren't attemps at stealing anything.

If someone feels imitated or thinks I stole an idea or something, please tell me and I'll correct it.

**A Dragon's Heart  
**

**Chapter 1 - Despair  
**

Pale moonlight bathed the lake, which started just behind the edge of the dark forest and spread for endless miles to the east, into a serene atmosphere.

The only disturbance of the otherwise calm waters was the young woman attentively washing her hair at the shore. Blond tresses curled slightly by their wetness. Closed eyes gave no indication of her inner turmoil, but her face showed signs of hopelessness and an impending surrender.

They would do it again that night.

"Hunting", they called it.

_More like murdering …_

She couldn't understand their reasoning for killing innocent beings.

They didn't purposely kill – like the humans did! They were just trying to survive!

But it wasn't her decision to make - and according to her father's wishes, it never would be.

"Combining the scattered tribes", he said.

_More like forcing her to finally shut up and comply._

"Holy union".

_More like forced submission._

She didn't even want to think about all that anymore …

She just wanted to be anywhere but here …

_Just … flying away … like they could…_

A wistful smile touched her pale rose lips.

If she could just leave everything behind and take to the skies like they so easily did…

_It must be awesome to see the world from up there…to be that free and worriless, if only for a moment …_

Sudden explosions in the distance disturbed the otherwise quiet and peaceful scene and forced the young woman back to reality again.

Brown eyes looked sadly to the south, where flickering lights accompanied the loud signs of destruction.

_It started already._

_They found their prey._

She hoped nobody would be hurt that night.

It ended as soon as it begun.

The last explosion detonated and the last light dissolved, leaving behind only the calm peace of the night and the moon's gentle glow.

Letting out a half relieved – half resigned sigh, the young tribe member raised herself, turned back to the east and looked over the wide waters to the mountainside far away on the other end of the lake.

There would be so much more out there …

A muffled crash to her right side made her start and turn in that direction.

Drawing the knife secured to her right thigh and getting into a defensive posture, she looked into the murky forest. Concentrating all her senses onto detecting possibly threatening sounds or movements, she readied herself for maybe necessary self-protection – or worst case: running as fast as possible. She completely focused and waited for whatever was out there to show itself.

But nothing happened.

Just the quiet of the night met her waiting form.

Deciding, that perhaps, it was just her imagination she started to stand up more properly, when she finally heard something.

It sounded like … something hard scratching on stone …? Uncoordinated flapping? A hard landing … of something _really_ big …

… almost like …

Setting her mind – and in the process burying all the good reasons to just get the hell away from whatever was making these strange noises – the young woman crept slowly forward. Being careful to not make any sounds she neared the part of the forest, where a strong force once molded a giant crater into the otherwise even landscape. Stopping with her back behind a tree just at the edge of said crater she took a deep breath before cautiously looking past her shelter.

Her brown eyes widening at what she saw...

* * *

...yeah, what can I say? Hope you liked it?


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey there,**

**First** of all: THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!

Nightlingbolt:

I'm trying not to reveal too much too fast to built up a little tension. That you don't know everthing that's going on right from the beginning is exactly what I want ^^

I want to get the reader to think about the little hints I('m trying to) leave here and there. You will get what's going on soon, I promise. And thanks for giving my writing a chance even if you don't support the pairing. I really appreciate that.

Crystilia:

Don't spoil the second chapter! ^^

No really, good guesses. And thanks for the motivation.

Harajuku Ninja

Yeah cliffy! I just love them. (Well, not when I'm the one reading, but writing them is fun. ^^)

Thank you for your motivating comment. It means a lot to me.

And **second**: on with the story ^^

**Disclaimer:**

You all know how it is.

The characters aren't mine.

The story is inspired by everything I ever read or watched about dragons and the likes, so possibly occurring similarities aren't attempts at stealing anything.

If someone feels imitated or thinks I stole an idea or something, please tell me and I'll correct it.

English isn't my first language and I don't have a beta, yet (someone interested?) but I tried my best to avoid mistakes.

Read, enjoy, review, don't be too harsh with criticism.

* * *

**A Dragon's Heart  
**

* * *

Stopping with her back behind a tree just at the edge of said crater she took a deep breath before cautiously looking past her shelter.

Her brown eyes widening at what she saw…

**Chapter 2  
**

There below her, at the bottom of the huge crater, stood a real, breathing, _living_ dragon - with wings and horns and tail and everything.

Its massive head was lowered partially to the ground and its tail twitched agitated from side to side. The moon's light caught by its scales revealed its white coloring.

The young woman couldn't do anything but stare at this sight. It was such a long time ago that she saw an actual dragon – alive that is.

_Mom was still with us, too._

The sudden snorting below took her back to the present, letting her notice the last traces of black smoke rising from its nostrils.

_So, it's a fire dragon._

It turned his head a little to the left to look at its shoulder and only then did she notice the red, thick liquid on the base of its left wing and the slight outwards turn of said appendage.

It had to be the one her father's men hunted just moments before.

_It escaped! It actually escaped the hunter's squad!_

With that thought an indescribable feeling of relieve flooded through her – immediately followed by great worry about the dragons actual state of health when she contemplated the amount of blood seeping out of the undefined wound.

_It had to be something serious for the dragon to just land here not that far from the place of its attack. It could be a really severe wound … and on its wing no less. _

_A dragon that can not fly … _

… _is easy prey for every hunter …_

In that moment the dragon built itself up to its full size, spread its enormous wings and started flapping them. Slowly at first but as the front of its body started to rise the wing beats became harder and faster and the young woman didn't fail to notice when the left wing started wavering and became aware of the strain it took on the mighty creature to just hold a part of its weight in the air. With every new flap and every fraction of rising the trembling became more pronounced.

Frowning and really alarmed now, the young tribe member on top of the cliff crouched down, leaned a little bit more forwards and watched the scene unfolding below.

The massive body almost left the ground completely now and right when it seemed as if it could actually take off any moment – its left wing gave out completely and with one last nearly desperate swing and a loud pained growl the dragon came crashing down again.

_Oh no!_

Leaning forwards still the blond haired woman had to repress the need to stand up, climb down and to just do _something_ to help this creature. Her grip on the old tree hardened considerably.

_There has to be something I can do to help it! Anything!_

And her eyes widened when the implications of all of her thoughts finally registered undoubtedly in her mind.

_I would betray the village …_

The tribe's law was absolutely clear in what to do when coming across a dragon.

_I would betray everyone …_

She shouldn't even _consider_ wanting to help this dragon!

Lowering her head and closing her eyes she tried to quiet her tumbling mind and think about her next actions.

_I _should_ report to my father immediately._

_I _should_ inform the hunters._

Her eyes opened.

_But …_

She looked back down in time to see the usually so proud creature stumping its left foreleg in a mixture of frustration and nearly despair. After letting out another smoke-accompanied snort and several calming breaths the dragon just curled up dejectedly, being careful of not hurting his left wing any further.

… _I don't want the dragon to die …_

Making up her mind and reaching her final decision the young woman stood up straight and without looking back she made her way back to her village.

* * *

Cliffy! ... again …

Yeah, so that was chapter 2.

Hope you enjoyed it!


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